As some of you may know I’m a potter having fallen in love with clay 27 years ago. I’m director of a program called The Jeremiah Project, an after school and summer creative arts program for under-served middle school students. We provide pottery and digital arts programming through our partnership with the Central Florida Boys & Girls Clubs and the City of Winter Park. I would go so far as to label myself a clay evangelist, so persuaded am I of the transformational capabilities of this art medium. Our kids think it is positively magical.

I have had the opportunity to share the magic of this medium with two extraordinary groups over the past month.

The Florida Hospital Innovation Lab (FHIL) is housed on the third floor of Florida Hospital Orlando. Creativity and a collaborative spirit just ooze from every corner of this lab. The open spaces are flooded with natural light and nary a cubicle or walled up office can be found. The lab is all about design thinking (in BBLB parlance that means creative thinking). The design thinking mindset is “Yes And” rather than “Yes But). Empathy is a huge component of design thinking. Posters such as “FHIL is a place where you experiment and fail faster to learn faster”; “ 1 year equals 365 opportunities”; and “Lean into Curiosity”. FHIL exists to help create better solutions for health care.

FHIL Staff Glazing Pottery

I’ve been a FHIL groupie for the past couple of years. Any place whose mission it is to find creative solutions to complex problems is totally my jam. I brought my mobile clay studio to the lab to conduct a “Blind Pinch Pot” exercise with the lab’s facilitators. Potter Paulus Berensohn, in his book Finding One’s Way With Clay, prescribes this exercise as a way of promoting mindfulness. Participants are taken through a relaxation exercise and then asked to create a pinch pot from a ball of clay the size of small orange, while keeping their eyes closed and focusing on their breath. Invariably the exercise produces beautifully created pots. Berensohn maintains that these pots are a script for our lives.

I also wanted to share this blind pinch pot technique with participants in the Brain Fitness Club operated out of the First United Methodist Church in Winter Park, Florida. The program serves individuals with early dementia. Members participate in activities that stimulate the mind and body. Creativity certainly fits that bill. Their willingness to engage in something new and different made my heart jump for joy. For some, the exercise took them back to childhood- “My brother and I played with clay” one member said, seemingly delighted with the memory. “Of course we also threw it at each other” he added.

Clay comes from the ground and helps ground those who touch it. Whether working with young professionals or people experiencing memory loss, this tactile medium offers an opportunity to be fully present even for 30 minutes. Hopefully this creative respite can have a residual impact rippling out to family caregivers and the doctors and nurses seeking solutions.

As a member of the Team GB Elite blogging group, I’ve been given the opportunity to share an exciting discount with my readers, to celebrate Growing Bolder Magazine’s 2016 expansion! This post is sponsored by Growing Bolder, but all opinions are my own.

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One of the things that Growing Bolder promotes is an initiative called Move Forward. Give Back®. It’s a celebration of people who have a positive impact on the lives of everyone around them. For some, it’s about volunteering time or donating money, and for others, it’s about leading by example. I wanted to reflect on what this idea means to me, in my life, and so I offer this story.

On a Sunday morning in the fall of 2001 I listened to an Old Testament reading from the book of Jeremiah. As a ten year potter at that time I was moved by the following passage: I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel….The vessel he was making was spoiled in the potter’s hand and he reworked it into another vessel that seemed good to him…then the Lord said, “just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” That passage inspired me to help create an arts ministry at the First Congregational Church of Winter Park, one that reached across the economic and racial divide of Park Avenue to the west side of Winter Park. We called this program, The Jeremiah Project, so inspired were we at the prospect of molding and shaping lives through this outreach effort. Twelve years hence, The Jeremiah Project provides pottery, digital and performing arts programming for at risk middle school aged children from Boys and Girls Clubs throughout Central Florida.

“Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand”. That line has served as such a wonderful metaphor for all that this program has accomplished. Clay comes from the ground and grounds those who touch it; clay requires centering on the potter’s wheel before it can be shaped; clay is forgiving, it can be remolded if we make a mistake; shaping a vessel is similar to the power we have to shape our own lives; “opening” the clay, a step in the process of clay creation is similar to allowing ourselves to be open to life’s possibilities. These are the messages we hope, ever so subtly, to convey to kids who tend not to have access to art programs like many of our children enjoy.

We just finished our summer program. We served well over a hundred children during the course of our five week program. Wonderful staff and volunteers provided the kind of attention and training these kids rarely receive. Building self-esteem is a goal of this program as well as encouraging them to think bigger than the narrow experiences that have made up their lives. Many of the kids we serve have never been out of their poverty communities. There is symbolism in crossing that Park Avenue line (the main street leading into wealthy Winter Park) and welcoming them into our church where they come to feel they belong and have a sense of place.

I just turned 62 this summer. As I age deeper into my 60s, I guess I’m starting to reflect a bit on my life. Much research has been conducted supporting the notion that giving to or doing for others contributes to one’s overall happiness and sense of well-being. Theoretically I appear to be the one “giving” to these kids, but in reality they have given so much more to me, and my life has been immeasurably enriched as a result.

On a Sunday morning in the fall of 2001 I listened to an Old Testament reading from the book of Jeremiah. As a ten year potter at that time I was moved by the following passage: I went down to the potter’s house and there he was working at his wheel….The vessel he was making was spoiled in the potter’s hand and he reworked it into another vessel that seemed good to him…then the Lord said, “just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” That passage inspired me to help create an arts ministry at the First Congregational Church of Winter Park, one that reached across the economic and racial divide of Park Avenue to the west side of Winter Park. We called this program, The Jeremiah Project, so inspired were we at the prospect of molding and shaping lives through this outreach effort. Ten years hence, The Jeremiah Project provides pottery, digital and performing arts programming for at risk middle school aged children from Boys and Girls Clubs throughout Central Florida.

“Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand”. That line has served as such a wonderful metaphor for all that this program has accomplished. Clay comes from the ground and grounds those who touch it; clay requires centering on the potter’s wheel before it can be shaped; clay is forgiving, it can be remolded if we make a mistake; shaping a vessel is similar to the power we have to shape our own lives; “opening” the clay, a step in the process of clay creation is similar to “opening to God’s grace” and opening ourselves to possibilities. These are the messages we hope, ever so subtly to convey to kids who tend not to have access to art programs like many of our children enjoy.

We just finished our summer program. We served well over a hundred children during the course of our seven week program. Wonderful staff and volunteers provided the kind of attention and training these kids rarely receive. Building self esteem is a goal of this program as well as encouraging them to think bigger than the narrow experiences that have made up their lives. Many of the kids we serve have never been out of their poverty communities. There is symbolism in crossing that Park Avenue line (the main street leading into wealthy Winter Park) and welcoming them into our church where they come to feel they belong and have a sense of place.

I just turned 59 this week. As I approach the 60 mark, I guess I’m starting to reflect a bit on my life. Much research has been conducted supporting the notion that giving to or doing for others contributes to one’s overall happiness and sense of well-being. Theoretically I appear to be the one “giving” to these kids, but in reality they have given so much more to me, and my life has been immeasurably enriched as a result.

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